Armory - Discussion Thread

[etotheipi]

32GB RAM your just playing Call of Duty.  But ok from now there is really no reason for me to be running constantly anyway.  Glad to know you're on it.

I don't play many games anymore.  The 32 GB of RAM is because I usually have 3+ virtual machines running at the same time, all running Bitcoin-Qt and Armory.  It's for testing its performance on multiple OS.  Plus, if I spend a lot of time digging into the C++ code, it's really nice to have a Windows VM with MSVS to do debugging of C++ ... nothing beats it...

What's the maximum amount of wallets that can be loaded at the same time?

There's no arbitrary maximum.  It ultimately comes down to how many addresses you have combined in all your wallets.  I can tell you that I have run with tens of thousands of addresses, and there is no problem (but as we just noted, I also have 32 GB of RAM).  But the number of addresses is not really the bottleneck -- the size of the blockchain is.  So unless you are doing crazy stuff, like generating millions of addresses for research/experimental purposes, there should be no problem.  Note that each wallet generates the next 100 addresses by default... so a new wallet will have the number of addresses actually used, plus 100. 

One thing you might find annoying is that the interface isn't designed very well for lots of wallets -- for instance, you can't sort or resize the wallets table, and you can't do arbitrary filtering of the ledger (i.e. -- only show transactions from wallets A, E, F and Q).  Other than that, it should work...

[Parazyd]

Let's say, 30 wallets and 2 addresses used in each one. I'll be OK?

[etotheipi]

Let's say, 30 wallets and 2 addresses used in each one. I'll be OK?

That would actually be 102 used in each one, because Armory maintains a lookahead list of addresses 100 beyond the last used (for a variety of reasons).  Either way, that's still only 3k addresses.  I believe that the number of transactions combined among all addresses is the more important factor... having 1 address with 1,000,000 transactions (like an SD address) will be far more stressful than 10,000 addresses with 1 tx each.

On the other hand, I'm mostly speculating based on how I designed it.  But speculations aren't always right.  Try it out and let me know!   Though, because of what I said before, you should consider whether you can get by with fewer wallets using more addresses each, solely due to the way the GUI is designed.

[Parazyd]

http://bitcoinarmory.com is down. What happened?

[K1773R]

seems like apache crashed, since its a CONRST

[etotheipi]

Okay!  Finally returned from two weeks in Thailand!  Of course I had to leave just as we were changing webhosts and the DNS wasn't setup properly.  I couldn't seem to get it fixed while I was away, but it should be fixed now.  There should be no more website issues from here forward!  (except for the version checking, but I made sure that a failed version check doesn't bother the user).

I see a lot of big news in the BTC world since I left.  50% increase in value is nothing to sneeze at!  It's making me a little anxious to get some of these usability upgrades implemented.  Soon!  I have to pick some priorities, and just tackle them at full speed.  I think the resource usage and load times are the big ones.  And if I can get the auto-manage-bitcoind-in-background going, then Armory would actually be not much more inconvenient than running Bitcoin-Qt 0.8.  It's a shame because I actually made quite a bit of progress on the new wallets while sitting on trains, planes and buses in Thailand.  But I think SD is putting too much pressure on me and I have to push the resource usage up on the priority list.

On a related note:  I was thinking of upgrading my primary system before getting too comfortable in my old work environment.  When trying to download Ubuntu, I ran into this:



Besides the non-obvious "you are not actually required to give us money, just download here" button, this seems like a good model for me to copy.  Add a new tab to the main window very much like this.  Have a running list of major features, and let users contribute to the ones they would like to see completed first.  If the total contribution amount is above X, then they will have the opportunity to enter their address and I'll send them the appropriate gift from my website (T-Shirt, Casascius coin, USB key, etc).


 

[Parazyd]

That's a really nice idea. At least you don't actually lose anything.

By the way... My multi-wallet operation, it worked amazing. I ran 103 wallets 
Though, it's really small, had some trouble scrolling all the time 

[bit365]

I would love the option to have a sound play when receiving/sending Bitcoin, in addition to the system tray notification.

[etotheipi]

By the way... My multi-wallet operation, it worked amazing. I ran 103 wallets 
Though, it's really small, had some trouble scrolling all the time 

Glad the wallets worked out!  I really should make the main window into a "splitter" so that you can configure how much vertical space is used for the wallet list vs ledger.  What I will do in the near future is add to my TODO list: make the wallet table sortable.  I imagine that might make it a bit easier to navigate...

I would love the option to have a sound play when receiving/sending Bitcoin, in addition to the system tray notification.

About once every six months I decide I'm going to do this.  I look up examples of how to do it, and it seems really simple.  So I do it.  And it doesn't work.  I look for more examples, but the only thing I find is the super-simple thing that doesn't work for me.  So I give up.  And forget about it for 6 months.

I remembered now, because I tried it again just before I left for my two week vacation and failed again.  Perhaps it's a problem with my particular setup and it wouldn't fail for everyone else.  Since I just reinstalled my OS, I will try again soon!

[the joint]

I apologize if the following issues have already been discussed in this thread:

I downloaded armory onto two different computers last night in order to set up an online system and an offline system.  I downloaded version 0.87 Beta.  One of the computers uses bitcoind 0.6.2.  The other computer uses bitcoind 0.8.0.

Now, here's what's interesting.  The computer running bitcoind 0.8.0. is plenty powerful with its 16 GB ram.  The computer running bitcoind 0.6.2. only has 4 GB of ram.  However, it takes the computer with 16 GB about four times longer to scan the blockchain so that Armory can enter online-mode.

Not only that, but this is even weirder.  On the computer running bitcoind 0.6.2., armory syncs with the network fine and displays the full number of blocks in the network (~222760 as of this post).  However,  when armory syncs on the computer running bitcoind 0.8.0, it displays an unchanging block count of exactly 101000 blocks.  This number does not update even when it detects that additional blocks have been solved in the network.  

Anybody else experience anything like this?  Thanks!

Edit:  Now, Armory won't sync at all on the computer using bitcoind 0.8.0 despite waiting for hours.  I tried restarting the program and the computer multiple times, and it always fails to sync and remains static at "connected (0 blocks)"

[dollarbill]

When I try to use Armory with TOR, Armory stays in the Offline mode and says that Bitcoin isn't running--when in fact it is.  BTW I'm using Armory  0.87 on a Windows 7 laptop with 8 gigs of RAM.  Armory works fine when I use Bitcoin with a commercial VPN. I know this subject was discussed recently on this thread (pp 86-87) but I don't think a definite solution was proposed.  Also I'm a real noob--can't write a line of code.  Can anyone tell me how they've gotten Armory to work with TOR in a  "For Dummies" format.
Many thanks.

[chrisrico]

When I try to use Armory with TOR, Armory stays in the Offline mode and says that Bitcoin isn't running--when in fact it is.  BTW I'm using Armory  0.87 on a Windows 7 laptop with 8 gigs of RAM.  Armory works fine when I use Bitcoin with a commercial VPN. I know this subject was discussed recently on this thread (pp 86-87) but I don't think a definite solution was proposed.  Also I'm a real noob--can't write a line of code.  Can anyone tell me how they've gotten Armory to work with TOR in a  "For Dummies" format.
Many thanks.

When you set Bitcoin up to run over Tor, it disables incoming connections, including those coming from localhost. I'm not sure how to fix this without potentially compromising your Tor connection.

[K1773R]

When I try to use Armory with TOR, Armory stays in the Offline mode and says that Bitcoin isn't running--when in fact it is.  BTW I'm using Armory  0.87 on a Windows 7 laptop with 8 gigs of RAM.  Armory works fine when I use Bitcoin with a commercial VPN. I know this subject was discussed recently on this thread (pp 86-87) but I don't think a definite solution was proposed.  Also I'm a real noob--can't write a line of code.  Can anyone tell me how they've gotten Armory to work with TOR in a  "For Dummies" format.
Many thanks.

over and over again... listen=1

[dollarbill]

Hi K1773R,  I don't know anything about writing or editing code.  Where do I find  or add "listen=1"
Thanks

[MoneypakTrader.com]

I'm in offline mode, but it looks like it still tried to check http://bitcoinarmory.com/versions.txt.  You should also sign versions.txt, and maybe check https instead.

Yeah, I'm not that advanced yet.  I don't have an SSL cert for the site, [...]  I should do all this, but it's not my priority, yet.

I'll donate $10 BTC if you implement SSL (https) on your site for downloading your client and another $5 BTC if you support connecting to a btc client that uses a proxy to connect.
PM if you implement this.
Same goes for bitcoin.org, how can they distribute banking software without https/ssl connections to the download?!?!

[K1773R]

Hi K1773R,  I don't know anything about writing or editing code.  Where do I find  or add "listen=1"
Thanks

in the bitcoin.conf

[K1773R]

I'm in offline mode, but it looks like it still tried to check http://bitcoinarmory.com/versions.txt.  You should also sign versions.txt, and maybe check https instead.

Yeah, I'm not that advanced yet.  I don't have an SSL cert for the site, [...]  I should do all this, but it's not my priority, yet.

I'll donate $10 BTC if you implement SSL (https) on your site for downloading your client and another $5 BTC if you support connecting to a btc client that uses a proxy to connect.
PM if you implement this.
Same goes for bitcoin.org, how can they distribute banking software without https/ssl connections to the download?!?!

the proxy stuff isnt related to armory, its a bitcoind/qt thing.
just put "listen=1" without the " on a newline in ur bitcoin.conf and u can use any proxy u want (tor, etc, everything works).
do i get 5BTC now?

[Zedster]

Beta-version development plan:
File-based blockchain operations -- reduce RAM footprint from 1.5 GB to 100 MB. 
 (file-based blockchain DONE -- foot print still large)

How is this coming sir? Love the app but would like the RAM back

[etotheipi]

I'm in offline mode, but it looks like it still tried to check http://bitcoinarmory.com/versions.txt.  You should also sign versions.txt, and maybe check https instead.

Yeah, I'm not that advanced yet.  I don't have an SSL cert for the site, [...]  I should do all this, but it's not my priority, yet.

I'll donate $10 BTC if you implement SSL (https) on your site for downloading your client and another $5 BTC if you support connecting to a btc client that uses a proxy to connect.
PM if you implement this.
Same goes for bitcoin.org, how can they distribute banking software without https/ssl connections to the download?!?!

While I do plan to upgrade my site to https, it's actually necessary for downloads:  the downloads are hosted at

https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinarmory/downloads/list

Which is HTTPS.  And all the installers are GPG-signed (though I recognize it can be difficult to check GPG signatures in Windows).

As for versions.txt... I need to do something about that.  I was just fantasizing about signing each versions.txt with a hardcoded public key in Armory... but yeah I should just do the SSL thing...

When I try to use Armory with TOR, Armory stays in the Offline mode and says that Bitcoin isn't running--when in fact it is.  BTW I'm using Armory  0.87 on a Windows 7 laptop with 8 gigs of RAM.  Armory works fine when I use Bitcoin with a commercial VPN. I know this subject was discussed recently on this thread (pp 86-87) but I don't think a definite solution was proposed.  Also I'm a real noob--can't write a line of code.  Can anyone tell me how they've gotten Armory to work with TOR in a  "For Dummies" format.
Many thanks.

over and over again... listen=1

Also, you might have to modify the Armory shortcut on your desktop (right-click --> Properties), and add the following to the "Target:"   

--skip-online-check --skip-version-check

Put both of those after the existing text in the "Target" field (and make sure there's a space between ".exe" and "--skip...")

[etotheipi]

Beta-version development plan:
File-based blockchain operations -- reduce RAM footprint from 1.5 GB to 100 MB. 
 (file-based blockchain DONE -- foot print still large)

How is this coming sir? Love the app but would like the RAM back

Yeah, I had made a lot of progress on that, then SatoshiDice took it all back

I will be fixing it for real -- as in fairly-optimally for real... soon.  With the blockchain continuing to grow so rapidly, I recognize this as a very high priority.  Just have to work out some database/persistence upgrades and Armory will see a lot of improvements beyond RAM usage (at the expense of doubling the blockchain on disk, for a while)